


Fire and Fear

by Kelticmoon



Series: Fixit Series compliant fics [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bullying, Childhood Trauma, Fixit series compliant, Keith (Voltron) Has Abandonment Issues, Keith has powers, Keith needs a hug, Keithtober 2019, M/M, SHIRO LOVES KEITH, Season 8 don't know her, attempt to light a person on fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 00:56:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20899004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelticmoon/pseuds/Kelticmoon
Summary: On their way back to Earth immediately after escaping the pirates, Shiro and the others find themselves in the clutches of one of the druids Honerva sent away. However, the druid is only interested in one person.Keith.





	Fire and Fear

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the scene with the puppy from Elfin Lied and the scene with Tohru and Kyo from Fruits Basket episode 24.  
Also explains why Shiro switched to the Green Lion.

Shiro blinks his eyes open with a groan and immediately starts to panic when he sees he’s in a cell on a Galra ship. It’s only when he hears other groans that he calms down a little. He looks around as one by one the other Paladins, Krolia, Coran, and Romelle wake up.

“What happened?” Lance asks.

“Last thing I remember, we were ambushed by a Galra ship,” Hunk says.

“From the looks of it, I’d say we lost.”

They follow Pidge's gaze and see that the Paladins have all been stripped down to their Paladin under armor. Everyone’s arms are bound behind their backs by some kind of chain made of quintessence that’s connected to the floor.

Everyone…

Except for Keith.

“Hey, how come Keith’s the only one not bound?” Lance asks as Keith moves to Shiro’s side.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and Shiro immediately goes into a flashback when he sees the druid and a bunch of guards enter the cell.

Keith immediately steps protectively in front of Shiro.

“It is not the Champion we seek.”

“Wha… hey!”

“KEITH!”

Keith and Krolia’s yells snap Shiro out of his flashback as some of the guards grab Keith and haul him to where the druid is standing.

“NO!”

Shiro and Krolia immediately move to protect Keith but are stopped by the chains.

Keith all but snarls at the druid as the guards hold him in place.

“Such spirit…”

Keith’s snarl intensifies when the druid moves to touch Keith’s face, only now it’s more frantic and panicked.

“Leave him alone!”

“Don’t touch him!”

Shiro and Krolia both strain against their restraints as the druid’s hand touches the side of Keith’s face.

“I sense a rare form of quintessence within you…”

It touches Keith’s forehead with the other.

“A form that has not been seen in 10,000 deca-phoebs.”

Keith suddenly jerks backward.

“How did you acquire such quintessence? I must know. Perhaps there is a memory that has the answers.”

“N…no!”

The entire room gasps and realize what’s happening as Keith starts to tremble.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

Shiro roars in fury as everyone else fights their restraints.

The druid ignores the warning, as do the guards.

Shiro can see Keith’s trembling getting worse as tears roll down his face.

“DAMN IT, STOP!”

The druid continues delving further into Keith’s mind.

Suddenly, the druid pauses as a look of confusion to crosses his face.

“What in the…”

Suddenly Keith shoots Krolia a panicked look before his eyes start flashing red.

“M…Mom…”

Krolia seems to recognize it as a warning of some kind because the next thing Shiro knows she's slamming into Romelle to knock her to the ground while simultaneously sweeping his legs from under him so he's on the ground too.

Keith screws up his face in anguish.

“GET DOWN AND STAY DOWN!”

The others all follow Krolia’s command as Keith’s scream echoes the room.

_ **“LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!”** _

The druid and guards that are holding Keith explode one by one into a burst of red fire and ash. A tic afterward, their chains disappear, but no one dares to get up. The rest of the guards meet the same fate as a shockwave expands out from Keith that passes safely over everyone laying on the ground.

“Holy shit, dude!” Hunk exclaims, his voice shaking.

It’s over as quickly as it began, leaving smoke and ash hanging in the air.

Krolia’s already moving when Shiro and the others start to pick themselves up. She reaches Keith right when her son crumples and catches him before he hits the ground.

Keith whimpers as more tears slip down his face.

“Mom…”

“Shh…” Krolia soothes him. “It’s going to be alright…”

Keith immediately turns into Krolia’s arms and clings to her as he empties his heart out. Krolia holds him protectively in her arms.

“I’ve got you, son…You’re alright…”

Romelle moves to sit beside Keith and hugs him as he cries. Shiro and the other Paladins are still too frozen in terror.

After a few tics, Keith falls silent. Krolia looks and sees he’s fallen asleep.

“I’m sure you all have questions, but now is not the time to ask them.”

She shifts Keith in her arms so she can slip an arm under his knees and lifts him into her arms effortlessly.

“Right now, we must get out of here.”

Krolia leads them into the hallway outside their cell.

“This ship is likely laid out the same as the pirate ship so it should not take us long to locate our belongings.”

They quickly locate where their armor and weapons are held. They expect to see soldiers guarding.

What they find are two piles of still smoldering ash.

“Quiznak…” Coran breathes as they grab their stuff.

Krolia looks at Pidge.

“Are you able to locate which hanger the Lions are in?”

Pidge types something into her wrist computer before pointing.

“This way.”

A cloud of smoke and ash hangs in the air as they head for the hanger. All along the corridors are piles of ash or small puddles of molten metal.

“Guess we don’t have to worry about anyone trying to stop us…” Lance comments, trying to sound lighthearted.

Shiro looks at Keith sleeping in Krolia’s arms as they run for the hanger.

They reach the hanger the Lions are in.

“Into your Lions,” Krolia commands.

“What about Black?!” Pidge asks.

“No time for questions! Just go! Before the other ships discover us!”

As Shiro runs to the Green Lion with Pidge where he’s been riding since Pidge asked him to after she was threatened by the pirates, he sees Krolia head for the Black Lion where the space wolf is still recovering from the ordeal with the pirates.

He hears Krolia’s voice giving orders over Green's com.

“Someone fire at the hanger door!”

“On it.”

Lance aims Red’s railgun at the hanger door and destroys it.

“We’re also going to need a lift.”

“On it!”

The Blue and Yellow Lions swoop in then and grab hold of the Black Lion to lift it out of the hold.

“We’ll clear a path,” Pidge says into the coms as she pilots Green out ahead of the three big Lions.

“Red and I will guard your backs.”

It doesn’t take them long to get away and find a secluded moon to land on.

They all enter the Black Lion to see Keith laying on the bed in the living quarters in Black’s cargo hold with the space wolf laying loyally at his side.

Krolia quickly moves them into the Lion’s head where they gather on the floor.

“I assume an explanation is in order."

“What… what happened back there?” Allura asks.

Krolia sighs as she paces the room away from them.

“I am unsure how to explain or where to begin.”

“Do you know what the memory was that made Keith... react... the way he did?” Coran asks.

Krolia turns back to them.

“That I **_can_ **answer.”

She leans against Black’s pilot seat and explains.

“There was an incident many years ago between Keith and some bullies.”

Krolia frowns as she continues.

“They had pulled him into a condemned house where they then proceeded to torture my son.”

“Torture how?” Lance asks.

“I will not say everything they did to my son. Just know it was horrible. Toward the end, one of them got the idea to douse Keith in liquid flame accelerant and attempt to light him on fire.”

Only Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro gasp.

“Liquid flame accelerant?” Romelle asks innocently.

“I believe on Earth, it is typically called lighter fluid.”

Now Lance gasps.

“Basically, it’s a liquid we have on Earth that ensures that whatever is lit on fire actually catches fire,” Hunk explains.

The three Alteans gasp and Romelle immediately jumps up and runs through the doorway into the living quarters where they see her curl up on the bed with Keith and Kosmo.

“I feel it is safe to assume they failed to do so?” Allura guesses.

“You are correct. They doused my son in the accelerant, but before they could get close to him with the lighted match…”

Krolia trails off. She doesn’t need to say the rest.

“It is not the first such incident, merely the one I saw in the Abyss. However, shortly before I saw that particular memory, I got to witness it myself first hand. We were attacked by two creatures that had a flame on them. One of them grabbed him while I was pinned to the ground by the other and I guess it triggered a flashback of that incident because Keith’s eyes flashed red like you saw and both creatures exploded into ash.”

Pidge crosses her arms.

“Well, if you ask me he did the world a favor!”

“Seriously, if those kids had no issues with lighting someone on fire, they can’t have been very good people,” Hunk agrees.

Lance looks up at Shiro.

“Did you know about this?”

Up until now Shiro hasn’t said a word.

“No.”

Shiro admits, still shaken.

Krolia looks at him.

“It is the one thing he feared you learning of. You know my son.”

Krolia doesn’t need to finish. Shiro knows all too well about Keith’s abandonment issues. He was afraid Shiro would abandon him if he knew… was afraid this would be the last straw that made him give up on Keith.

Shiro remembers something then.

“Now that I think about it there was another incident in his file that was similar. Only it was a foster home he was in. One day the entire house exploded for no apparent reason. He was found unconscious inside the house and was pulled to safety, but the foster family mysteriously disappeared. When it was discovered that the entire family had been abusing Keith, authorities came to the conclusion that they tried to kill Keith and fled. Now that I know about... this… they probably tried to kill him but Keith basically did to them what he did to the druid and his crew.”

“Once again, sounds like he did the planet a favor,” Pidge states.

Shiro stops at the gangway and looks back toward the living quarters as they’re all heading back to their Lions to rest.

“You can stay if you want.”

Shiro looks at her.

“Huh?”

“I’ll be fine. Keith needs you more than I do right now.”

Shiro gives her an appreciative smile and heads inside the living quarters as Romelle leaves to bunk with Lance. Krolia sees him enter.

“Are you staying here tonight?”

Shiro nods.

Krolia smiles and stands.

“I will be staying with Pidge if you need anything. He needs you.”

She leaves and he sits down so he can hold Keith’s hand.

As he sits beside Keith, he tries to rehearse what he’s going to say in his head.

All of it goes out the window when Keith opens his eyes. He refuses to look at Shiro but Shiro can tell Keith knows he’s there.

“Keith?”

“You saw… didn’t you...?”

“Yeah…I did.”

“And you’re still here? Aren’t you going to pretend you’re ok before leaving? You don't think I'm a monster?”

His voice sounds so vulnerable… so small...

“Actually, I’m scared shitless of you…”

Shiro doesn’t even try to hide the emotion in his voice.

“I’m terrified… I’ve never seen anything like that and I’m terrified of you…”

Keith closes his eyes and Shiro knows Keith’s bracing himself for a goodbye. Shiro can feel the tears welling in his eyes as he continues.

“But still… even though I’m afraid of you… even though I don’t really understand what’s going on… I’m not going anywhere, Keith and I definitely don't think you're a monster.”

That surprises Keith enough for him to look at Shiro as he holds Keith’s hand in his own.

“I still want to be near you, Keith. I want to keep seeing the amazing leader you’ve become. To grow closer to you. To figure out whatever this thing between us is. I want to keep seeing you every day and talking to you about everything and nothing like we always do…I want you in my life, Keith.”

Keith all but launches himself at Shiro and wraps his arms around the older man’s neck. Shiro wraps his one arm around Keith and holds him close as the first tears fall.

“It’s ok… that you’re afraid of me…” Keith tells him emotionally. “It’s ok that you don’t understand… That maybe there are things you’re freaked out about… That means you’re accepting all of me… both the good and the bad… you see all of me...”

Shiro buries his face in Keith’s neck as they hug each other tight.

**Author's Note:**

> Since Allura periodically had moments where her quintessence abilities manifested during a fight, I figured Keith's should do so as well.
> 
> If you've read my fixit series, you'll understand why Keith's abilities manifest the way they do here. If you haven't, please go read it. I'm very proud of it.


End file.
